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Tuesday, 3 September 2013

Today our opinions are shaped immediately by the reactions of others. Case in point - when the former Disney child star Miley Cyrus gyrated lasciviously on stage at a recent music awards, the outpouring of disapproval was filled with references to the way viewers had reacted negatively on social media. As the story spread, it was hard to tell if people's reactions were a direct response to Cyrus or if they were also influenced by the negative opinions of others.

A new study has examined this phenomenon in relation to the comments posted to a news-sharing website similar to Reddit.com and Digg.com. Users of the site share links to news stories and others then post their comments on the stories. In turn these comments can be rated positively or negatively, thus encouraging or deterring others from reading them. Such systems promise to martial the wisdom of the crowd. However, they could also be vulnerable to distortion if raters are influenced not only by the comment in question, but also by the ratings it has already received.

Lev Muchnik and his colleagues tested this possibility experimentally. Collaborating with a news-sharing website they randomly assigned either a positive or negative first-rating, or no rating (control condition), to 101,281 real comments posted over 5 months. This simple manipulation had a significant effect on the way other site users subsequently rated the comments.

An initial positive rating on a comment tended to have a snowball effect, encouraging further positive ratings. The first viewer of a comment rated positive by the researchers was 32 per cent more likely to add their own positive rating, as compared with the control condition. In contrast, there was no effect on the likelihood of a negative rating being given. Five months later, these effects accumulated so that comments given an initial positive rating by the researchers ended up with a 25 per cent higher average rating as compared with control comments, and they were more likely to end up with an exceptionally high average rating score. These positive herding effects were found for comments in the politics, cultural and business categories of the site, but not in economics, IT, fun or general news.

The situation was different for comments given an initial negative rating by researchers. These were more likely than control comments to receive both positive and negative ratings from other users. These effects cancelled out so that in the long run, comments given an initial negative rating ended up with average ratings that were no different from control comments. This was true across all subject categories.

Muchnik and his colleagues think the effects they observed are due to two underlying mechanisms - opinion change (users with little history of rating a given commenter were more likely than usual to give a positive rating to a comment that the researchers had rated positive), and increased turn out (i.e. seeing that a comment had already been rated tended to encourage users to add their own ratings, positive and negative). These mechanisms combined with a general trend for positivity on the site - that is, positive ratings were made more often than negative, overall. "Our findings suggest that social influence substantially biases rating dynamics in systems designed to harness collective intelligence," the researchers said.

The rating of comments on a news sharing site is a microcosm for the effects of social influence that play out constantly in the way we respond to news and culture through the prism of other people's reactions. It will be interesting to see if future research in other contexts replicates the positive snowball effect reported here, as well as the corrective response to initial negative ratings.

It will also be valuable to examine why the positive snowball effect was found for some topics but not others. In reality, of course, many comments, products and performances really are exceptional, dire or distasteful, and so another avenue of research will be to see how social influence interacts with objective quality to shape people's reactions.
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Build your home business with successful mentors or risk failure from the start. Extensive research has shown that the success percentage of nearly any endeavor greatly increases when a "model" to follow is provided. Building a home business as a way to earn a living requires guidance from others who have already done what you are trying to do. Stay away from those who are just barely one step ahead of where you are.

To build your home business with successful mentors your first step will be to "find" a successful mentor (or mentors) you feel you can work with and that have the patience to take you by the hand and walk you through the early struggles you will undoubtedly have as you get started. But "getting started" is just the beginning, your mentor will also need to show you how to grow and prosper with your new business.

SUCCESS LEAVES A TRAIL

This old saying has always been true -- success DOES leave a trail. And of course, to build your home business with successful mentors you must find a mentor that has a "visible trail of success" at helping others do that same thing. Ask questions and listen carefully to their answers. Questions like:

Have they done this "successfully" before? Have they successfully taught others this way to earn a living? (This may sound silly, but you would be astonished at how many people are out there who have never made a single penny of "profit" at their own home businesses who are actually teaching others how to start a business. And, that is just insane!)Can they "communicate" what they know to others? (Being able to "do", and being able to "teach" are two very different things. Find someone who can "teach".)Are they patient with others? (One of the biggest assets of a good teacher is patience. Everyone learns at different speeds and levels, one size does NOT fit all when it comes to learning. A good mentor will adjust to those they are teaching.)IS THIS ANY WAY TO EARN A LIVING?

Some people will foolishly grab the first person who says they are willing to help them, and then blindly follow what they say "as if" they were an expert. The key is to actually find yourself an expert, a successful expert, and then follow them knowing they are skilled at what they are teaching you.

HERE'S AN IMPORTANT TIP: As you are going along with the work of building your home business, are YOU leaving a "trail of success?" Are YOU starting to find a way to earn a living at it? Or, are you just going from one task to another without any outward sign of success?

Build your home business with successful mentors can be very easy to say, and not so easy to do. You will need to do your "due diligence" when searching for the right mentor to teach you the perfect way to earn a living, and that way is with your own "successful" home business.

It's in your best interest to find those who have had great experience and success with business in general not just business opportunities. Do your due diligence and find the right-mentor for you. If you like, you can start here with a quick risk free look at these mentors that many, many other have found to guide them at http://www.empowernetwork.com/home-business-mentor/

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